Short of some classic -of-the-genre type experience, “Olympus Has Fallen” is about as satisfying an action thriller as can be hoped for, with an irresistible premise and nothing but follow-through all the way to the finish.

This is moviemaking by the book, not a work of inspiration but of such craftsmanship as to command respect and awe. It's that wonderful thing, a really good movie.

Let's just hope that in Washington, D.C., they're laughing, because if you believe “Olympus Has Fallen,” then it really wouldn't be all that difficult for terrorists to take over the White House. They would just need a fighter plane, 50 or so guys with automatic weapons and a handful of traitors to work the inside. Plus, the all-important element of surprise.

Obviously, that would all take some doing, but the movie makes you feel that such a thing is at least possible.

The film has the sheen of a first-rate production. Director Antoine Fuqua (“Training Day”) turns the whole invasion scene into an extended, wrenching sequence. The enemy plane flying low over Washington, blasting pedestrians with machine gun fire, announces the movie's terms — it will pull no punches, and it's going to be bloody.

The fight for the White House is brutal and pulse-pounding, and there's no question that the sight of one of our defining structures getting defiled by bullets and missiles is disturbing on a primal level.

Think “Air Force One” meets “Die Hard”: As in the former movie, the president is held captive on his home turf. As in the latter, a lone, capable good guy is in the building where the hostages have been taken.

This time the building is the White House. The enemy is a North Korean terrorist, and the main hostage is the young president (Aaron Eckhart). Gerard Butler plays Banning, a hardened Secret Service agent who never quits.

How tough is Banning? He's the kind of guy who not only kills multiple henchmen but gets a big kick out of taunting the chief terrorist, Kang (Rick Yune), with wisecracks and threats. But wait ... that sounds familiar. That sounds a little like Bruce Willis, doesn't it?

As Banning, Butler isn't as funny or as charming as Willis, but as one politician once said of another, he's likable enough. Butler's chief asset is his violence. It is easy to believe in his anger and easy to believe that he would kill all those people.

Ashley Judd makes a sparkling first lady, and Melissa Leo is superb (and barely recognizable) as an angry and desperate Secretary of Defense. Morgan Freeman has a nice supporting turn as the tough-talking Speaker of the House, who finds out that it's easier to talk tough when you have no power, than it is to be tough, when faced with life-and-death choices.